“Sleepy Hollow” is a 1999 Tim Burton film that’s based off of the
Washington Irving novel “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. Tim Burton decided on loosely basing his film on the story instead of doing a direct adaptation. Some of these changes significantly worsen the story, and devoids it of its original meaning. Changes like making Ichabod Crane a constable instead of a schoolmaster makes the story worse. The differences from the original source material, makes the film more unenjoyable, however besides the source material changes it delivers an action packed intriguing mystery.
The film exceeded my expectations with action, yet fails with its story.
In the Burton flick, Ichabod Crane is a constable who moves into town, while in the story he
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Since Ichabod Crane is a detective, he is able to figure out all these events on a whim because he’s a “smart” detective. If Ichabod was a schoolmaster in the story, it would go along with the action and deepen the mystery. Another example of Tim Burton copping out is that the Horseman is an actual supernatural being. In the book, the horseman is nothing but a legend.
The whole moral of the story was to not let superstition dictate your actions.
If the killer wasn’t the actual Headless Horseman and more of a regular human it would make the story more true to its original form, since the townspeople believe it is the Headless Horseman, it would bring that moral back into the story. I think completely changing the moral and essence of the story and calling it the same name as the book, ruins the title. The name of the Headless Horseman is mentioned more than the town of Sleepy Hollow in the movie. The film should’ve just been called “Headless Horseman”.
The movie was able to deliver on the action and create a thrilling experience. The action scenes and gore were both fun and frightening.